The Karakaroum Highway goes from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad to beyond Sost, where it meets the border with China. The road passes a point where three great mountain ranges of the world meet – the Himalayas, Karakaroums and the Hindu Kush. You can even see Everest from the side of the road.

I rode the road back in 1998, making it up to Sost in two days and from Sost to the Border and back to Islamabad in one very long fast day.

Here’s the bike on the back roads to Islamabad from the border with Iran. I got kinda lost (as in totally lost) and ended up in the wildlands.

There are checkpoints everywhere in Pakistan (as there are in many other countries). The drive, for example, from Attabad to Islamabad would certainly encounter several. 40km may not seem like a lot, but in reality it can take quite a while to navigate. This is one of the army guards at an internal border (I think to NWFP) who put me up for the night in the mountains.

I got to go up the KKR on a trip from Europe to Singapore. In retrospect the trip went by far too quickly, and by the time I got the India the bike was pretty much stuffed – with one working brake (only it didn’t work in the wet) and bald tires. But it was a brilliant journey, with plenty of highlights and the zoom down the KKR was way up there.

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Unsurprisingly snow and motorcycles are not entirely compatible.

I was one of three round the world motorcyclists that decided to let their bikes have a wee rest.

Luckily Mod managed to stay upright – he’s the one with his 7 year old daughter on board.

I spent 2 weeks or so riding around New Zealand over the Christmas New Year break. What glorious fun. (There is a more complete set of photos over at Flickr.)

It reaffirmed what a wonderful place this is. Even during the height of the summer break it was easy to get away from it all.

My friend April, ex USA, was great company, and meant that I really got to see NZ from a foreign tourist perspective. We we often both treated as being from offshore, and almost universally we had positive experiences.

New Zealand is increasingly a great place to travel to – it’s not only beautiful and so forth, but  people in and out of the tourism industry really appreciate visitors and it shows.

We rode from Wellington, down the Molesworth track to Hamner, then to Christchurch.The Molesworth Track is only open over summer, and is an excellent excursion. We briefly met several people from Wellington cycling the track – a wonderful idea.

The next day saw us go to Haast via a windy and then very wet Arthurs Pass. New Years Eve was to Te Anau (Queenstown was a traffic jam) and we spent New Years Day spent at Milford Sound. It really is one of the most spectacular places in the world.

The next day was a very big one – from Te Anau back to Wellington. That wasn’t the plan, but there was a big front behind us encouraging us to keep going. It simply meant steady riding at the speed limit all day. The nice thing about being on the motorbike is that our hold-ups by slow traffic in the hills was minimal.

Best shopping town award, and April was a very experienced judge, went to Napier, which we got to via the Wairarapa. Here she is perusing some mops.

We went through Gisborne, then the Motu track 9top two photos) to Whakatane, and then to Auckland via the back roads.

After dropping April off it was up to Waipu, then through to Raglan (highway 22 is very worthy) and then back to Wellington via the Wanganui river road. Be sure to go down that road son as it is increasingly devoid of gravel. Here’s the very pretty Jerusalem church.

2009 was a good domestic travel year for me – for example I managed to ride or drive through the Haast Pass three times in 2009, once on the Brass Monkey, once on the way back from skiing in Wanaka, and this time. Similarly it’s been a great start to 2010, with the visit to Milford on New Year’s Day.

New Zealand really is motorcycling paradise, and despite there being two tragic motorcycle fatalities during my trip (both relatively near to where I was that day), it remains one of the safest places to ride in the world. You certainly don’t need to go fast in New Zealand to experience great riding, and those tempting straights simply make you tired, wear your tires out and are fully policed.

Speaking of which, there was a checkpoint on the road into Wanaka on New Year’s Eve. The stop was the usual efficient affair, but what was interesting was April’s comment afterwards – “That was the friendliest Policeman I have ever met.” We tend to forget just how good interactions with the Police are here in New Zealand, and for his part the officer left us feeling even happier about the day and the country. Well done.

Be afraid, however of unwashed bedspreads, blankets and pillows.

These can harbour nasties and are washed far less frequently. Ever had a cough or flu in a hotel? Wondered what happened to the bedspread after you left? I try not to, and I do know people that use towels to insulate themselves from the less clean bedding. Some are very frequent travellers.

So instead of the toilet strip, how about a checklist at the door – giving the dates when each item in the room was washed (those pillows seem to sit there forever), or better yet the number of guests that have used the item before you? Also why not ask guests to tell you (or quietly record) when they are a bit ill, so you can wash the full range of bedding?

Neither of these are palatable options of course as they cue the guests to start thinking uncomforting thoughts.

I’m not sure what the right answer is. At the moment it’s a trade off between health and cost – and one that even the best hotels call in favour of cost.

Meanwhile there’s a lot to be said for camping. And towels.

You can get the DVD over at HorizonsUnlimited, which is the website for people that don’t know how to turn their motorcycle around.

Those hoons still believe in ABS and traction control – this bike has 4 settings that adjust the engine, ABS and traction control for Rain, Sport, Race and (even) Slick. I like how there is no ‘cruise’ setting.

As with all Superbikes, relentless efforts go into reducing weight. Look at the tiny reservoir for the rear brake fluid:

The chain goes through the swingarm:

While the integrated rear lights both look elegant and don’t interrupt the airflow.

The bike joins its dirtier cousin – the G450X – in allowing BMW to compete at the very top in motorcycle sport. It will take a while for them to start winning regularly, and then to dominate, but this is a great start.

You can’t just design a series of great bikes and start producing, expecting them to sell and to be reliable. It is even tougher if you are starting from the position that BMW did back in the early 1990s.

The successful transformation of the Motorad group is one of the great stories of the motorcycle community – but sadly an untold story, one I would like to read. It seems that BMW decided that they want their bikes to be as good versus their peers as their cars are versus theirs. Full credit to them for this transformation.

It’s been 0.5g/l in Australia for years – folk over 40 will remember Peter Brock always had had 05 on his car, as that was the limit for drink driving.

But is it the right solution?

The problem is that we just don’t know whether 0.8g/l is ok for you and yet 0.01g/l is not ok for me. The problem is also that there are so many other reasons why one could be impaired – fatigue, drugs – legal and illegal, phone, screaming kids, adjusting the radio and a lousy vehicle.

So should we be judged on our alcohol levels in blood, or on our actual on the road behaviour? Here are three alternatives to the current policy – what do you think?

By setting a limit above 0.0% g/l we are  promoting the thought that some drinking is ok when you are in charge of a motor vehicle. It’s not. Any alcohol in your system means that your ability to drive is affected.  I can feel myself being adversely affected after just one beer, and on a motorcycle it is particularly dangerous.

If you had asked me 10 years ago I certainly would have reacted against the thought of 0.0% as a limit, but after working in a zero tolerance environment I now understand the reasoning. It’s simply that it is dangerous to yourself and to others to operate machinery when you are impaired. It is also so simple in practice – you just don’t drink.

A Zero Tolerance environment is much easier to police – both on the road but far more importantly at a social event. If you see one of your friends drinking anything then that means they are not driving. It also applies if they take anything else that could affect their judgement.

 The Case for Zero Testing

Some people are able to drink and drive safely, and even do so at relatively high levels of alcohol. This occurs a lot in other countries, such as Italy, where the driver will drive safely and slowly, is 100% focused on the road (and not answering cell phones, chatting and so forth) and poses no threat to himself or others.

So is it really wrong to drive home drunk if you are driving well below the safe speed and when others know that you are impaired?

Here’s a proposal. If you have had anything to drink, then you can still drive, but must do three things:

• Place large florescent “D” signs on the front, sides and back of your car – signifying that the driver is under the influence, and that others should give space
• Drive at no more than 40kmph in cities and 75kmph in rural zones
• Never ride a motorcycle, never drive at rush hour  
  

I found in my recent trip in Australia that a “P” plate was a solid indication that the driver was likely to be an idiot, and so I stayed well clear. Similarly with a “D” sign – other drivers will stay well clear and give you the space to survive.

Meanwhile police can easily identify the impaired drivers and pay special attention to how they are driving. Any hooning while impaired, speeding over the D limits or driving impaired without D signs can be harshly dealt with.

The case for increasing driving monitoring

Why not abandon alcohol testing and simply be more rigourous on monitoring driving quality by increasing the ability of police and public to catch people that are driving poorly? Let’s use the natural increase of cameras in society to allow police to monitor more roads at once. It’s Big Brother, but he is here already and by proposing it now we can do it right.

• Make it easy to send videos of idiot drivers to police – e.g. we can expect in-car video recording systems (make them evidential quality)  to increase sharply in popularity over the next few years, and passengers can use cell phones to take videos – give them somewhere to send them to.
  
• Increase fixed location roadside surveillance cameras, place them in known hoon areas and go after idiots. 
  
• Use remote cameras before and after police checkpoints to check for and pull over idiot drivers.
  
• Roll out in-car monitoring of speed and location – and give registration rebates to people that voluntarily set up their systems to report on instances where the driver exceed 115% of the speed limit in a location. Alternatively give ACC rebates to businesses that do the same for their vehicles, and push for insurance companies to do the same with premiums.  

Note that it is dangerous driving that we should be focussed on – not low-level speeding in a safe way. 

<update – via a comment by Matthew Sanders on SimpleandLoveable the police have a place to report poor driving: http://police.govt.nz/service/road/roadwatch.html>

I’ve found myself in more than one conversation this week with people that, having completed in these sorts of things (e.g. Coast to Coast, half Iron Man) have now decided to move on. They are still challenging themselves, but will ride around Taupo on their own or in a small group, will hike in obscure places rather than nail a Coast to Coast, and will support friends rather than become Iron Men. 

It’s the same with motorcycling travel. It’s the difference between ticking boxes – e.g. to go “round the world” to do “North and South America” and just travelling around. 

This means they some motorcyclist must go up the haul road in Alaska, touch the western most point in Ireland, follow strict agendas and all sorts of other ridiculous things.

While a goal is motivational and makes for a good story, they are at the risk of losing sight of why you are on the motorcycle in the first place – to travel and to have fun. 

A set route that focuses on goals means that you’ll probably miss the best stuff. That Alaskan haul road is not nearly as nice as the Canadian equivalent that doesn’t quite make it to the Arctic Ocean. The PanAmerican highway – that runs through much of North and South America – is boring and often dangerously packed full of traffic. It’s like visiting New Zealand and staying on State Highway one – you can do it, but why? Why ride around Lake Taupo again, for that matter, when the ride from X to Y is just as long and you have not been there yet?

A rigid agenda can place you in serious trouble on a motorcycle trip. You scurry to keep up with it, and once you fall behind you are at risk of hurting yourself as you try to regain the pace. It means faster speeds on the road to make daily deadlines, and stress when breakdowns and other events occur. It means you can’t take a longer break if you feel ill, and that you really feel the power of bureaucracies when you get delayed.

Having no agenda means that these frustrations disappear. You can ease back and calmly read a book for 2 days if you are delayed at a border or have to wait for a new battery to be sent up from Lima to Arica- a process that it seems can take days. It means that if you find a nice town, like Arica, that you can chose to stay there for a bit. It means that if you met someone friendly, then you can stop or travel with them as well.

More importantly it means that you can make up the trip as you go – escaping the madding crowds to ride down obscure roads where people look at you like you are a space alien. It’s not hard, even these days in most non Western countries you can randomly turn right off the main road, then right onto a smaller road, and right again onto an even smaller one and proceed to be a lost space alien.

Running the Coast to Coast takes the competitors through some stunning scenery – but they cannot stop to take it in. Why not abandon the competitive spirit and grab a backpack and a few days and go tramping in the bush instead? You’ll see a heck of a lot more and there’ll be far less other people around to block the view. Meanwhile pushing yourself to the limit to reach a personal best is motivational, but perhaps your body would be better off a little bit back from the limit, which may save recovery time and increase your enjoyment.

Travelling in groups can mean that the trip becomes about the group, rather than about the locals. Watch or read the Long Way series – and see how much of the trip is about the interaction between the protagonists rather than meeting the locals and getting immersed in the culture.

It’s also more dangerous on the road, and the larger the group the worse it is.  There are three impacts. First – it is more dangerous as you tend to follow the person in front rather than make your own decisions about speed, positioning and what’s coming up. Secondly you stop less often, as you are reluctant to pause for trivial things when the whole group has to pause as well. Thirdly it creates stress when you are not sure where the main road is. In a large group his “misplacement” turns into being lost, and although you may be individually comfortable with being in the middle of nowhere, the group members each feel like they are letting down the rest. On your own you are never lost. Seriously – I’ve been in the middle of dense fog on a dirt track with wild horses looming though the mist and a border somewhere ahead or behind, but I did not consider myself lost. All you care about in those circumstances are that you have enough petrol, a reliable bike and enough food. Each of these things are also avaialble from locals, to one extent or the other.

On your own you do things like whizz up a promising looking forest track, zipping  down farm lanes that don’t quite go in the right direction and idling around intriguing neighbourhoods.

However you do get bored of talking to yourself, so that means that you have to reach out to the locals – learning their language and so forth. I’ve found that  knowing a few words in the local language can break the ice sufficiently for sign language and smatterings to take over. {We developed Lingopal with that in mind. Lingopal is now live in 43 languages – try m.lingopal.com on your mobile phone or web browser.} 

Recording the Results

A large number of long distance motorcyclists record things as they go, blogging, writing books and supporting an increasing array of charities. This can actually help the riders to push their personal envelopes as they have to have a decent story/photo to show the world each few days. It’s a double edged sword. It can also mean that it’s harder to abandon the agenda and to hang out with some cool people you’ve met along the way. I tend to chose a middle road – taking and posting pictures mainly, and writing the occasional missive to an email list in the early days. (There was an entertaining  one I wrote after having too many beers with a victorious Australian cricket team at the Australian embassy in Pakistan. I must track that down one day.) 

With extreme events it can get to be all about the race time, the personal best, beating others and giving support for charities. These are really motivational, helping athletes push their  personal boundaries. However the risk is the same, which is that the event becomes about the time and the charity rather than about the enjoyment and the physicality.

I’ve fallen into all of these traps over the years, to one extent or the other, and will probably keep doing so. There are plenty of other traps as well – overpacking is the most common. You learn and move on.   

So have Gareth and Jo Morgan. I briefly ran in to Gareth and Jo Morgan in Cusco a few years back – I was riding around solo, and they were on their last externally organised motorcycle tour. It was carnage. The group had left a trail of broken dogs, smashed up riders in hospitals and plenty of near misses. The group seemed far too large, the agenda way too tight and the pace on the road was vicious. 

So they took things into their own hands, and started organising their own rides. While they do have agendas, they are smart about leaving enough gap days and keeping the distances realistic. They create interesting routes and craft stories around them. The recent “Northern Lights” trip went nowhere in particular, but served up an excellent range of adventures.

One thing I like is that they take advantage of the logistical and post-ride beer benefits of group riding, but also split up into smaller or solo groups during the days to gain the benefits of individual touring. It would have been really nicewhen I had say, a flat tire, to know that someone in the group is a genuine motorcycle mechanic that can fix that tire in minutes compared to my hours. 

They also write about and video their travel – but they do it at the time, and they do it without adding to the group. The group members vary, which keeps things interesting, and the excellent logistics means that the trips fit inside some pretty busy group member schedules. Overall an impressive outfit.  

The Long Way Down guys are also impressive, and on a tough agenda. Their adventures are supported by a third rider and a couple of backup vehicles. It’s a pretty full on way to do the experience, but they have to keep the focus on making professional quality TV programs.  In the first movie/book Long Way Round they made a number of rookie mistakes – not the least overpacking their bikes and vehicles to a fairly impressive extent. (I’ve seen worse – actually I’ve even seen a bicyclist who was carrying more – including three tents.)

But they are also working things through, and the logistics for the second trip reflected that.

In parting – the best adventures, and the best stories, are invariably from when things go wrong. It’s the path back from that adversity that is the part that stretches you, makes you reach out to locals and really grok the understanding that humans everywhere are pretty remarkable.

It’s the same with the extreme sporting events – it’s what happens at the point when your body is saying enough and your mind overrides and you move it. It’s the remarkable feeling you get when you achieve something that was once a dream.

So I hear. I must do an Iron Man one day.